dvdand’s posterous

Rumor: Touchscreen BlackBerry slider in the pipeline?

Yay, rumors! Today’s fun rumor comes courtesy of one Mr. Shaw Wu, a Kaufman Bros. analyst, who believes (thanks to his sources in the supply chain) that a BlackBerry 9900 has not only hit the prototype phase, but also features an entirely new form factor for RIM – a touchscreen slider.

The mystical BlackBerry is said to be some sort of Storm-meets-classic-Blackberry-meets-slider concoction. As IntoMobile points out, the above patent image clearly gives some hint at what a legitimate BlackBerry slider could look like.

The purported next-gen ‘Berry is expected to be revealed sometime in 2010. But until we see an actual prototype (come on Mr. Blurry cam, help a brother out!), this is all just pure speculation for the time being.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Content Discovery a Lucrative But Dangerous Place for Operators

Mobile network operators can boost data revenues by providing personalized apps and content experiences for their subscribers, according to a report released today by Qualcomm. But the carriers will have to walk a fine line between being helpful and being invasive as they try to take their customers by the hand.

According to the San Diego-based chip maker — which is touting Xiam, its mobile content discovery technology — 63 percent of users polled in the UK and U.S. said they’d spend more time accessing or purchasing content if the stuff they were looking for was easier to find. Four out of five respondents said difficulty obtaining content is “a major problem,” and users estimated they would spend an average of an hour more per week and $8 more per month on mobile data if their content was personalized.

Such difficulty is especially easy to appreciate given the ways most users search for content on their phones. The two most common ways to look for mobile content are using search engines or typing in URLs on the device, Qualcomm said — methods that can deliver headaches more quickly than they produce accurate search results.

There’s no question that discoverability is a huge problem on the mobile web, and carriers — with their established billing mechanisms and strong content partners — are indeed well positioned to help their users spend money. But they’re also likely to be seen as intrusive by some, and as flat-out invading users’ privacy if they try to target content by tracking user behavior and purchases. And they’re sure to be resented by some users who figure their mobile company already takes a big enough chunk of change every month. There are opportunities to subtly suggest content their users might actually pay for, but carriers will have to tread very gingerly as they approach those subscribers.

2009: The Year Mobile Web Use Exploded

Mobile web usage has been on the upswing ever since the iPhone leaped onto the stage. But new data form Opera suggests it's not just the iPhone that's delivering the Internet to smartphone users.

Opera, in its Opera Mini format, is simply a downloadable web browser that works on certain smartphones to replace or augment the users options for accessing the web--it's free, developed by Opera Software (and, curiously, Google). It works on a variety of phones from handset makers including LG and Nokia--but not the iPhone.

The stats for September from Opera's regular "State of The Mobile Web" report show that traffic flowing through Opera's servers rose by 8.7% over the previous month. So far in October it's netted 26.9% of the global mobile browsing market, beating Apple's iPhone Safari browser into second place with 21.2%. Nokia's not far behind with 20.8%. The number of people using the mobile Opera also went up 11.5% in September versus August figures. 

But the number of people using Opera mobile rose by 150% compared to the same period in 2008--a figure which can only be interpreted as an explosion in use. And the growth coming from perhaps some unexpected quarters: The browser is installed mainly on Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets around the world, and Blackberry units in the U.S., and the list of top 10 countries using the browser includes Ukraine and Vietnam.

These stats, generated by Opera, do kind of make it look like Opera's leading the mobile web push around the world, but they're skewed in its favor. All of the surveys about smarphone usage show that while many more people may indeed be using Opera instead of Safari, iPhone users use their internet connection way more than other other smartphone users--a stat reflected in Opera's user figures climbing nearly 12% in the month, while data going through its servers rose just 9%: The conclusion is that Opera users just don't use the browser all that much.

Still, it's undeniably a marker that in 2009 the mobile web, which has been bubbling under boil for several years now, has finally reached boiling point--thanks to the efforts of Opera, Apple and Nokia. And lets not forget one transformational fact that will change the mobile browsing game forever from this year onwards: Dell's due to launch its smartphone with China's biggest network, and Apple's partnered with the second place network provider. With hundreds of millions of Chinese users soon to join the mobile web fray (albeit with China's medieval web censorship in place) this really is the year the Net goes mobile.

[via Opera]

RIM's BlackBerry watch pictured, possibly called 'inPulse?'

Filed under: RIM, Accessories

[Thanks, Evan]

RIM's BlackBerry watch pictured, possibly called 'inPulse?' originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Acer introduces new ‘Liquid’ Android + Snapdragon smartphone

Starting all the way back in December of 2008, Acer let it be known that it was working on a self-branded smartphone. Then, this past June, Acer up and joined the Open Handset Alliance and said that it would release its first Android device by Q4 of 2009. Well what do you know. Q4 is here and Acer has actually put its money where its mouth was with the announcement of its first Android-based, Snapdragon-powered smartphone, Liquid.

Acer is touting its new Liquid mobile (previously known as the A1) as “the world’s first Snapdragon and Android 1.6 smartphone” and who are we to disagree. Along with its powerful 1Ghz Snapdragon mobile processor and Android 1.6, the Liquid features a “high definition” 800×480 wide VGA capacitive touch screen display and comes in either red, white, or black. According to Acer:

[The Liquid] is the ideal solution for users demanding the best from their devices, and in particular outstanding multimedia, web browsing, social media integration and video streaming. It also brings smartphone product design forward with its unique and modern style.

This platform brings to market unique benefits for the end users and paves the way for a new wave of innovations from the developer community:

* With its High Definition capacitive touch screen (Wide VGA), Acer Liquid offers today an unparalleled experience when watching pictures or videos. But it also holds a promise for the future: the promise of an abundance of new applications on Android™ Smart Handhelds – games, professional applications and web applets that will enrich the end user experience. Now developers can be assured that their investment will build upon a standard resolution for the years to come;
* Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon™ processor, Acer Liquid provides instant access to web pages, smooth streaming of videos or music , and instant response from popular mail, maps and search applications. The high-speed processing capability and high-speed internet access (HSPA) of Snapdragon™ brings to life the Android™ experience: no idle-time, almost instant uploads of web pages and downloads of rich multimedia contents. The developer community can now take full advantage of these capabilities to bring to market innovative applications that demand raw computing power and superior handling of 3D graphics.

The Liquid also includes HSPA connectivity, a 5MP camera with auto-focus, geo-tagging, ISO and a self-timer, and “a slim body shape…that fits well in the hand, and displays a smooth finish.” Oh, and we cannot forget the Liquid’s “unique software enhancements” including:

* Improved power management to help achieve longer battery autonomy for intense users;
* A new user interface with easy access to entertainment and web bookmarks;
* An optimized camera with geo-tagging, ISO, self-timer options and accelerated auto-focus performance;
* Exclusive Spinlets™ application providing free streaming of worldwide music and video, that can be shared with friends and family through web-posting or e-mail;
* Smart integration of Facebook™, Twitter™, Youtube™, Picasa™ and Flickr™ in the address book, with realtime notification of status or content updates.

Acer conveniently left out all the juicy pricing and availability details. But hey, they said they’d drop a ‘droid in Q4, and gosh darn it…they meant it!

[via IntoMobile]

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Google’s Challenges in Mobile Search

Google’s dominance on the Internet is unquestioned, but its mobile search offering will have to address four major factors if it is to dominate wireless the way it rules the online world. There’s no denying Google’s momentum in mobile: Its Android operating system is attracting handset manufacturers and carriers at impressive rates, its developer community is showing growth, and thanks to a deal with Verizon, the OS will soon enjoy the reach of America’s largest mobile network operator.

That momentum will help Google’s mobile search business nearly triple over the next two-plus years, Jefferies & Co. is predicting, surpassing the $500 million mark in 2011. And that figure seems almost modest, as mobile search is expected to help fuel $4.2 billion in ad revenues in the U.S. alone by 2015, according to new figures from Coda Research Consultancy. But mobile search is still a wide-open space teeming with competitors, including pure-play search providers that sometimes understand the pros and cons of wireless better than their Internet counterparts. So Google’s offering will need to address four key issues if the company is to retain its dominance as mobile search gets legs:

• Consider the device. People look for different things from mobile search than from traditional online search, so results should automatically differ based on the device being used. Just as Google uses device-detection technology to format web pages accordingly, it should deliver different results to mobile phones than to computers.
• Tie the PC to the phone. Google has moved effectively in this direction with new features that integrate Google Maps on the PC, enabling users to flag specific sites on computers then access information about them later from their handsets, and it has introduced a feature that keeps users’ mobile and desktop histories in sync. It must continue to tie the two devices together to help usher its online users into mobile search.
• Deliver results based on context. Search histories and filters are a start, but Google and its competitors must do a better job of considering factors such as time of day and location when returning results, minimizing the need for users to scroll through screens to find what they’re looking for.
• Expand its search categories. A quick look at search apps for Apple’s iPhone indicates a demand for information regarding specific topics like baby names, medical documents and song lyrics. I think there will always be a need for such niche apps, but Google could compete against downloadable search apps by building out its mobile web search to include a host of categories.

Google’s invaluable brand and massive footprint on the web give it huge advantages as it builds its mobile business, and Android is gaining traction in a big way. As the company tries to recreate its online success in mobile, it must increasingly consider the differences between phones and computers. And because handsets may eventually overtake computers as a search platform, this is a game Google must play to win.